No lethal injection or electrocution, South Carolina is all set to carry out its first execution by firing squad in modern history.
This will be the first use of the method in the United States in 15 years.
Brad Sigmon, 67, convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001, is scheduled to be executed on March 7 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
Here’s all we know about it.
The crime
Sigmon is facing execution for killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat at their Greenville County home in 2001. According to authorities, Sigmon beat them to death while they were in different rooms, moving back and forth.
Then, at gunpoint, he abducted his ex-girlfriend, but she managed to flee his vehicle. Prosecutors claim he shot at her while she was running but missed. As Sigmon confessed, “I couldn’t have her. I wasn’t going to let anybody else have her.”
He will be the first US firing squad death in 15 years.
Sigmon opted for it over the two other methods in South Carolina – the electric chair and lethal injection.
Gerald “Bo” King, his lawyer, claimed that Sigmon decided on the firing squad since the other options appeared to be worse.
In 2021, South Carolina brought back the firing squad as a method of execution when officials were unable to obtain lethal injection medications.
In 2024, the state Supreme Court affirmed the method’s legitimacy, holding that the ban against cruel and unusual punishment in the US Constitution does not apply to firing squads, fatal injections, or electrocution.
How the execution will unfold
In South Carolina, death row convicts are kept in a building next to the death chamber at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
Sigmon will be transferred to a separate cell nearer to the end of his life, just before his execution.
The warden will call Governor Henry McMaster shortly before 6 pm to inquire if clemency is being granted and to enquire with the Attorney General’s Office about any legal obstacles to the execution.
Should both responses be negative, Sigmon will be placed into a metal chair that rests above a catch basin and taken into the death chamber.
The right part of Sigmon’s face and body will face the window when the witness room curtain opens. If he choose, his final statement may be read by his attorney or a jail official. His head will be covered with a hood. A medical official will place a target over his heart.
From a hole in a wall that witnesses cannot see into, three volunteers from the state Corrections Department will shoot weapons from a distance of roughly 15 feet.
According to AP, the state will use .308-calibre Winchester 110-grain TAP Urban ammunition often found in police rifles, said Colie Rushton, the director of Security and Emergency Operations at the Corrections Department.
The execution will be witnessed by reporters, Sigmon’s victims’ families, and his attorney in the same building that has hosted all of the executions over the previous 35 years. However, according to prison officials, the glass that separates the witness room from the death chamber is now bulletproof.
To verify Sigmon’s death, a medical professional will come, walking past the state’s motionless electric chair. The witnesses will depart after signing an official document that they witnessed the execution.
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The long history of firing squads in the US
In the US, firing squads have been used since colonial times as a form of mutiny punishment.
In Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608, Captain George Kendall, who was suspected of mutiny and conspiring with Spain, was shot to death, marking the first known execution by shooting.
According to Mark Smith, a professor of history at the University of South Carolina, firing squads were employed by both sides during the Civil War to maintain soldiers in line by producing a “public spectacle, a vision of terror.” In a paper published in the Cleveland State Law Review, Christopher Q. Cutler claimed that at least 185 people were put to death by firing squad during the Civil War.
Since the beginning, at least 144 civilian prisoners have been executed by shooting in America, nearly all in Utah. Only three have been executed since 1977, when the use of capital punishment resumed after a decade of pause.
The first of those, Gary Gilmore, caused a media sensation in part because he waived his appeals and volunteered to be executed. When asked for his last words, Gilmore replied, “Let’s do it.” Another notable execution was of labour activist and songwriter Joe Hill in 1915, who maintained his innocence until the end, was shot by firing squad in Utah State Prison.
According to Smith, firing squads were designed to shock and intimidate, with the added element of uncertainty, as one of the executioners would often be given a blank cartridge.
However, in the 1980s, lethal injection replaced firing squads as the favoured method of execution. At first, it was thought to be a more humane option, but it has subsequently been marred by poorly executed cases and trouble getting the necessary medications.
Five states—Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah—authorise the use of firing squads in certain circumstances.
There have only been two documented instances of botched executions, making firing squads comparatively dependable, according to Deborah Denno, a criminologist at Fordham School of Law.
Denno believes that because firing squads are usually faster and less prone to error, they might be a more humane option than lethal injection.
The identities of those who will fire the guns are unknown. According to prison officials, they had “completed all required training.”
The name of any provider of lethal injection drugs is also kept secret, thanks to a shield law that was established in 2023.